After Oct 29, 2007, the skies over the Klang Valley have become just a little bit busier.

And people living and working in Subang Jaya may hear the sound of planes flying over a little bit more often. The sound will probably not cause much of a disturbance. In fact, the rain storms are probably louder.

But the arrival of Firefly at the Sultan Abdul Aziz Shah (Subang) Airport has actually been quite thunderous.

The arrival of Firefly at the Subang Airport marks a major stage in the transition of the airline industry from direct service to the "hub-and-spoke" approach.

All over the world, flag carriers like Malaysia Airlines and Air Canada are now focusing on lucrative international routes and domestic trunk routes, while regional and domestic service is handled by low cost and community airlines.

This is happening because direct point-to-point service is slowly disappearing in all areas of the transport industry, from trains to bus to airlines. As transport operators are focusing on improving efficiency and reducing costs, multimodal services will become more and more important.